He may have already taken it on a national tour, but Kevin Smith proved there’s still plenty of audience interest in Red State (review). Thousands of fans packed out Hall H at Comic Con this afternoon for Smith’s annual Q&A where he talked about his first foray into the horror genre and showed five minutes of “spoileriffic footage.”

The writer/director said ‘Red State’ was his attempt at trying to make a movie like Quentin Tarantino and something “outside my comfort zone.”

“Until ‘Red State’ I didn’t have the balls to do it and try to make a movie like Quentin or the Coen Brothers,” he said.

“‘Red State’ was my way to homage those types of movies and what they do.

“It was so fucking artistically liberating man, because it’s the movie no one expects from you.

“It was like I was a talking dog, people would be like ‘stop the pop culture references, people are dying!’

“You’re not supposed to pump your own shit, but it’s fucking dope.”

Smith took the unconventional approach of self-distributing the film by playing it at select cinemas nationally with Q&A’s after each screening. The filmmaker said although ‘Red State’ has been released outside of the “studio system”, it has found an audience.

“I’ve been making movies for two decades man and I know one thing – people will see it eventually,” he said.

There are several dates still on the ‘Red State’ tour and a two week run at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema, Los Angeles. Smith said the film has already “cleared almost a million bucks” in merchandise alone. Inspired by religious fundamentalists, the film was made for $4 million and stars John Goodman, Kyle Gallner, Michael Angarano and Melissa Leo.

Smith said the profit from ‘Red State’ will allow him to finance his final film – hockey comedy ‘Hit Somebody’ – which he estimates will cost between 15 – 20 million. It’s set to start filming at the beginning of 2012 in Detroit.